ABSTRACT

Although fostering values is promoted within sustainability education (SE), many educators appear concerned or conflicted about how, or whether, to approach values education. An interdisciplinary research project sought to draw on insights from character education (CE) in order to explore the problem. Using the Delphi technique, 12 CE and SE experts were gathered, via email, to explore their perceptions regarding the feasibility of integrating theoretical/practical insights from the CE and SE fields. Experts rated their agreement and made comments on 41 statements. Fourteen statements reached ‘consensus’. Thematic analysis revealed experts’ agreement on an ethical base of SE providing practical application of CE; a perceived tension between democracy, pluralism and normativity; reservations about the individual nature of CE; the need for CE, and SE, to more actively foster awareness of self as part of nature; a desire for holistic and interdisciplinary education; concern regarding exam-driven education and agreement on the need to re-examine the purpose of education. The findings reveal common ground between the two fields, as well as indicating where differences could be bridged and misunderstandings addressed, suggesting avenues for future collaboration and potential integration – possibilities that it would be fruitful to pursue through further interdisciplinary research.

摘要

尽管在可持续发展教育 (SE) 中提倡培养价值观，但许多教育工作者似乎对如何或是否进行价值观教育感到担忧或矛盾。一个跨学科研究项目试图利用品格教育 (CE) 的见解来探索这个问题。使用 Delphi 技术，通过电子邮件聚集了 12 位 CE 和 SE 专家，探讨他们对整合来自 CE 和 SE 领域的理论/实践见解的可行性的看法。专家们对他们的协议进行了评级，并对 41 项声明发表了评论。十四项声明达成了“共识”。主题分析显示专家们同意 SE 的伦理基础提供 CE 的实际应用；民主、多元化和规范性之间的紧张关系；对行政长官的个人性质持保留意见；需要CE，和 SE，更积极地培养将自我视为自然一部分的意识；对整体和跨学科教育的渴望；对应试教育的担忧，并同意重新审视教育目的的必要性。研究结果揭示了这两个领域之间的共同点，并指出了可以弥合差异和解决误解的地方，为未来的合作和潜在整合提供了途径——通过进一步的跨学科研究追求这些可能性将是富有成效的。